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ART; Circles and Spheres, Outdoors and Outsize

ONE of the rewards of looking at a lot of art is now and then coming across an artist who makes vital work in a mode frequently regarded as dry. At the Stamford Museum's Nature Center, the artist is Jean Woodham, who makes abstract sculpture often with an eye toward placing a large piece outdoors.

In ''Jean Woodham: Fifty Years of Sculpture,'' the emphasis is on the last few decades. It originated at her alma mater, Auburn University in Alabama. The catalogue essay by Burt Chernow relates that Ms. Woodham, born in Alabama in 1925, arrived in New York City on July 4, 1946. She plunged herself into an art world that extolled abstraction, and in 1949 she met Louise Nevelson, who became a life-long friend. The current Stamford venue is appropriate because Ms. Woodham has lived in Connecticut since 1955, in Westport since 1970.

Nevelson's sculpture is essentially blocky, while Woodham opts for fluidity; her chief motifs are circles and spheres . When she makes a piece that is mainly horizontal lines, the lines tend to undulate. Though they share stylistic concerns, Nevelson set an example for Woodham by her boldness and her esthetic of monumental sparedness. David Smith and Isamu Noguchi are other important influences.

Save for one displayed on the patio off the gallery, the works in the exhibition are small scale. They are welded or cast bronze, or welded brass or steel. The first piece encountered is ''Transplants'' (1970). It doesn't take long to see the incipient sphere as a human heart. A form like a pipe makes the aorta and is reminiscent of the inventive set of bull's horns by Picasso.

One of Woodham's practices is agglomeration -- the piling on of several parts to achieve a substantial forum, as in ''Transplant,'' but another is to go resolutely horizontal. A major example of this is ''River'' (1958), a wall relief with a central ellipse that is traversed by fluid lines easily read as ripples in water. But these lines terminate in sharp points, making the piece seem somewhat aggressive. The skeletal shape reminds this viewer of the spiny egg sac of a ray or a shark that has washed up on shore. This sculpture and several others have an interesting corrugated surface composed of hundreds of tiny rods welded together. Viewers may be reminded of a cartridge belt. Woodham's sculptures, including ''River,'' frequently have a dual reading and anthropomorphism is common. The reference is not to the human figure per se but more broadly to conscious life. ''Seed Form'' (1950), for example, also resembles a plucky bird. When the human figure is intended, it is often inspired by African art.

Amid the general somber coloration some of the works gleam brightly. ''Revelation'' (1970) has a gold patina and resembles a man standing in front of the sun. Thus it has an aura of full optimism. Another circle made almost 20 years later sounds a more cautionary note. ''Time/Spike'' (1989) is roughly an open circle made of several pieces of welded brass. Circles have always represented time and the notion of progress, so viewers might be stopped short by the sharp spike, piercing the piece like a lightning bolt. As is always the case with Woodham there is no hard and fast meaning here, but one does sense a palpable disruption.

In the 1980's Woodham began to work in a pared-down elemental idiom that allows for maximum energy but apparently minimal elbow grease, especially when compared to lining up and attaching thousands of small rods. These simpler works consist of disks of brass welded at a point on their edges to a black frame. The disks disport themselves freely and blithly. evoking the jauntiness of Alexander Calder.

A rectangular frame often has lengths of brass running through, with disks attached. The effect is musical. The frame is a rudimentary staff and the disks are notes, most likely of a jazz composition. A majestic work in this style is ''Double Leo'' (1992), the title undoubtedly referring to the sign in the zodiac and the disks are intersected by ray-like forms. The earlier ''Revelation'' guides viewers to this interpretation.

Woodham's major outdoor work is presented in black and white photographs. Even this rather primitive format allows qualities of the sculpture to come through. Two horizontal pieces, ''River'' and ''Lake,'' and a standing one, ''Waterfall,'' cover three fountains in front of the building, now the corporate headquarters of Nynex in White Plains, N.Y. The architecture of the building is primarily horizontal, emphasized by a zigzag roof line that perfectly echoes the undulation of the three-part work installed in 1969.

A major Connecticut installation is ''Interchange,'' at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain in 1987. It is composed of thick linear elements, but they don't undulate in easy harmony as is usual; rather the lines form a complex tangle.

A stirring picture is ''Scholars' Sphere'' at Woodham's Westport studio before its installation in 1978 at Harry S. Truman High School in New York City. A 40-foot high addition to the studio was built to accommodate the work. But the sculpture's progress from idea to New York City was stalled by the financial crisis that New York City underwent in 1976 and ensuing legal battles. (Public sculpture always has politics as a key medium.) Given its contentious history, ''Scholars' Sphere'' seems especially triumphant.